Saldeck and others opting or wanting to leave out the corn syrup - corn syrup is important but not essential to this recipe. You'll just have to be much more careful when you bring the sugar to a boil. This is where cooking for engineers becomes chemistry!

In order to make any candy (other than rock candy) you need to prevent recrystallization of your supersaturated sugar solution! Any single grain of sugar that remains in your pot can serve as a nucleus and your cooling liquid will quickly become grainy and slushy!

To avoid this you can add corn syrup (Karo works fine) to your granulated sugar or you can go it the old fashioned way.

You'll need 2 cups of granulated sugar and 1 cup of water, combine in a pot and bring to a boil. Begin swirling the pot gently yet constantly once all of your sugar has dissolved. Resist the temptation to stir! If you see grains of sugar on the side of the pot you can wash these down into the syrup using a food grade brush dipped in cold water. Many recipes recommend constant stirring but often you can wind up with granules of sugar stuck to your spoon.

BTW - if your sugar gets too hot and begins to brown - congratulations you've made caramel! If you want to make soft caramel add 2 TBS butter and 1/2 cup of whipping cream to the brown sugar syrup once you've removed it from the heat (it will bubble like crazy but stir the mixture and it will become silky smooth) - Caramel and marshmallow complement each other well!

Feel free to use the wire whisk attachment - if you have a stand mixer worth its salt you won't get any splatter if you pour in your syrup carefully and you'll get a lot more loft in your marshmallows!

Also - don't forget to experiment with other falorings although vanilla is my fave. You can also roll your marshmallows in a mixture of cornstarch and powdered sugar to keep the sticky-ness down. You can also add cocoa to this mix for chocolately goodness. Or can also choose to get fancy and you can pipe out all sorts of shapes just put the marshmallow goo in a large plastic freezer bag, cutting off a corner, and go to town - make your own peeps, etc.

Good luck (BTW - marshmallows make excellent gifts and people can't get over them)

RE: corn syrup substitute
"Lyle's Golden Syrup" is a product from the UK made from sugar cane. The jar says it can be subsituted for corn syrup. It can be purchased at health food stores or Kroger in its international foods section or through numerous websites.

As a cool experiement you can see the wavelenght of your microwave oven by heating up a layer of mini marshmallows on a large plate. Be sure to remove the turn-table to make this experiment work. Turn on the oven at high and watch the marshmellows grow and burn where the wave power is at its max but undergo little effect at the minimums.

I use balloon whisk to make my marshmallows which is a recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's. The syrup is boiled to soft-ball stage not hard-ball. Using a balloon whisk makes a fluffier (and therefore drier) maarshmallow.

Corn syrup is expensive here so I subsitute with liquid glucose measure for measure. Corn syrup/liquid glucose not only prevents crystalization but makes a creamier marshamallow texture.

Kosher gelatine Kojel will not work. Carageenan and gum arabic behaves differently in recipes like this. It will work for other recipes that does not require whipping time.

The best substitute would be fish based gelatine.

I have not tried Emes. Agar also would not work with marhsmallow recipe.

For a smoother mouthfeel use potato starch and not powdered sugar. Cornstarch maybe used also but best is potato starch/potato flour.

And because I sell this, I want them to keep longer, I do not usebutter. I just sprinkle with LOTS of potato starch is all.

Hi I can't write english so god but i need know if you have the way to make figures but with the commercial marshmallow in monterrey named brochetas de malvaviscos
tank you and a thousand excuses for my bad writing of English

I have never tried marshmallows, but I have an easy "Fluff"-like recipe there may be a way to use this (non-gelatin)recipe for mallows with some experimenting (though it uses eggs, so it's still be no use for vegans). If the fluff sits around (refrigerated) for a few days, it separates. If you dredge glops of the (post-separating, drier) fluff, maybe you could get them to dry to a more marshmallow-y texture (I've never tried).